Following the morning’s wet Free Practice, Qualifying 1 for the eni FIM Superbike World Championship at Donington Park saw improving conditions, that led to a nearly full dry situation towards the end of the session. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) set a 1’30.278 lap-time to finish on top, with a big margin (1.282 seconds) over 2nd place Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike). Sykes has made the difference at Donington Park today, as the remaining 9 to complete the top-10 finished within a second of each other.

His encouraging start of the weekend was hampered by a late crash at Turn 4 that damaged his Ninja ZX-10R, but the works Kawasaki rider walked away from the gravel uninjured. A Few seconds before Frenchman Jules Cluzel (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) lost control of his GSX-R1000 at the exact same spot.

Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet) kept his momentum up after Monza’s success by finishing 3rd , followed by Aprilia duo of Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) and Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing), Leon Camier (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) placed Michel Fabrizio (Red Devils Roma Aprilia). Melandri’s team mate Chaz Davies was 8th ahead of works Aprilia rider Eugene Laverty.

Local hero Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike) fought against the pain to complete an outstanding total of 8 laps (14th place). The rider from Derby was declared fit to ride but his conditions will be reviewed again before tomorrow’s Qualifying 2. Haslam fractured his left leg at Assen and despite still recovering from the injury, he is doing his very best to tackle the whole round.

Leon Haslam:

“I wasn’t going to go out if the conditions were as dodgy as they were this morning but if it rains tomorrow I needed to get a banker in. I managed to do that and get in the top 15 in case it rains, and I only got two laps in dodgy conditions. We made a few adjustments to the bike which helped the knee but in that session I had no pain killers, no strapping, nothing, so for me it can only get better from now. I’m going now to get it iced up and have some more treatment and make a better plan for tomorrow morning.”

Times:

1. Sykes (Kawasaki) 1’30.278 average 160.424 kph;
2. Rea (Honda) 1’31.560;
3. Melandri (BMW) 1’31.571;
4. Guintoli (Aprilia) 1’31.792;
5. Giugliano (Aprilia) 1’31.940;
6. Camier (Suzuki) 1’31.978;
7. Fabrizio (Aprilia) 1’32.094;
8. Davies (BMW) 1’32.103;
9. Laverty (Aprilia) 1’32.242;
10. Baz (Kawasaki) 1’32.261;
11. Cluzel (Suzuki) 1’32.677;
12. Canepa (Ducati) 1’33.174;
13. Neukirchner (Ducati) 1’33.205;
14. Haslam (Honda) 1’33.402;
15. Checa (Ducati) 1’33.530;
16. Badovini (Ducati) 1’34.198;
17. Sandi (Kawasaki) 1’34.405;
18. Iannuzzo (BMW) 1’38.050;
NC. Lundh (Kawasaki) 1’37.334.

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